Criss' Computer Games will headline the inaugural TREEVERB Music Festival on June 1 in Ann Arbor.
ANN ARBOR, MI - While his acting career has earned him most of his praise and recognition,Darren Criss spends most of his time on other pursuits.
Balancing musical side projects like Computer Games with organizing the Broadway outdoor music festival Elsie Fest, and cooking up a 10th anniversary celebration for his StarKid theater company, Criss says there are numerous “spinning plates” he’s constantly working to balance in the grand scheme of his career.
“I spend probably the vast minority of my time as an actor,” said Criss, a 2009 graduate of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
“If you look at the pie chart of what I do on a daily basis, it really is in the minority.”
Criss, who hails from San Francisco, will return to Ann Arbor with music on his mind, when he and his brother, Chuck, headline the inaugural TREEVERB Music Festival on June 1 in downtown Ann Arbor.
The former “Glee” star took some time to speak with The Ann Arbor News about his rising career as an actor and his various musical outlets, including his love for Ann Arbor-born funk band Vulfpeck.
(Some answers have been shortened for brevity and clarity.)
Coming back to town
AAN: You’ve been pretty open about your love for your alma mater and Ann Arbor, in general. What keeps you coming back?
CRISS: I go back once a year, usually in tandem with some sporting event of some kind, or some event that I’m involved with. I jump at any opportunity to go back to Ann Arbor.
It’s the roots of a lot of important and dear things in my life. It just has an energy that, anyone who is lucky enough to feel it, wants to check in with that energy every now and then. Ann Arbor is a really special town for me that holds a lot of special memories.
Preparing for Computer Games
AAN: For those not familiar with your band Computer Games, what can they expect on June 1?
CRISS: I’ve played music with my brother my whole life. One of the first records we ever made together was made in Ann Arbor. Chuck wanted to record some songs with me one summer and there was a new, at the time, studio at the Duderstadt Center, that was one of the most professional work stations we could have asked for at that point in our lives.
We were always saying to ourselves ‘We’ve really got to get back to the songs we had when we were teenagers. I think two years ago, we had an open window of time so we decided to put some of our old songs together and kind of form this new group called Computer Games.
It sort of hearkens back to what we did as kids, which was play a lot of computer games. The music is heavily electronic and is very playful. It doesn’t take itself very seriously at all. We kind of wanted to give it a name that fit the tone of what we were doing. When we were kids, the games we were playing were actual computer games, but as we got older, they turned into digital music production software like FruityLoops and Logic and Pro Tools and those became our (new) computer games.
Meteoric Rise
AAN: While you remain committed to a lot of different aspects of entertaining, your acting career has really taken off over the past couple of years, earning Emmy and Golden Globe awards. Are you at all surprised that you’ve received these types of accolades so early in your career?
CRISS: It’s a difficult question to answer, because if you say “No, I’m not surprised,’ you sound full of yourself that you expect these things, which I obviously don’t. I will say I’m thrilled and honored that things from the outside have come my way and bestowed me with things that are incredibly validating and very humbling, but that’s not the end game.
I know very well it doesn’t necessarily last forever, and it doesn’t come around all of the time. Much like playing in a band, having a sustainable acting career is a lot like a team sport. Between my manager and publicist, we really work hard on the collective career of this thing that is much bigger than itself. It’s a team sport getting all of these pieces together.
Reflecting Vulfpeck’s rise
AAN: You obviously had a lot of experience playing live music during your time at UM and since in Ann Arbor, including a number of occasions with the guys from Vulfpeck. Is it gratifying to see their careers blossom to the point that they are playing places like Madison Square Garden at a time when yours is doing the same?
CRISS: I’ll never forget, I was in the basement of some frat house playing music. My friend was nice enough to let me play drums, which at a house party, is kind of a gamble. When you have kids partying, ‘Yo can I play your instrument?’ can go in many different directions. It’s common protocol to just not let the guy at the party play your instrument, but he trusted me to play and I was having a great time playing with this bass player. That was how I met Theo Katzman. I’ll never forget seeing Theo around town playing a lot of the same open mics, going to a lot of the same parties and had similar friends.
I would meet guys like Theo or Tyler Duncan and all of these people I would meet, I was so wildly intimidated by. They were my friends, but it was so frustrating, because I would think ‘Is this what it’s like everywhere? This must be what it’s like to go to a music school, because you meet all of these people who are so talented, and I think they are so good.’
You see these guys and think, ‘I think you’re awesome, but I know my tastes are pretty insular and I don’t know if there’s an accessibility for the rest of the world outside of my nerdy appreciation for my brilliant friends. Cut to however many years later, and things are coalescing for Vulfpeck, it’s such a heartening feeling to think 'Thank God, I’m not crazy. These guys are amazing, and this is cool. There is something special and unique here that people really like, outside of my head.’ That is so encouraging to me and the really special part about it is it’s more or less the same group that is more or less doing the same thing they did in college.
I get so excited talking about Vulfpeck because they’re like like my biggest bragging right that I don’t deserve, because I have nothing to do with their genius. I drop their name constantly to look cooler around people who are cooler than me.
The one-day festival is scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 1.
ANN ARBOR, MI - When Matthew Altruda thinks about the nation’s biggest music festivals, he recognizes the power a single word like Coachella or Bonnarro can have in creating images of summer fun in the minds of festival goers.
That’s Altruda’s vision for the TREEVERB Music Festival, which will be held for the first time on Saturday, June 1 in downtown Ann Arbor. Much like Sonic Lunch, the other Ann Arbor concert series Altruda coordinates, the festival is free to attend and is sponsored by First Martin Corporation, Bank of Ann Arbor, Destination Ann Arbor and ann arbor’s 107one.
Headlining the festival is Computer Games, an electro-pop band fronted by actor, singer and University of Michigan alum Darren Criss and his older brother, Chuck. Computer Games, whose debut EP “Lost Boys Life” was released in 2017, will be joined by a variety of noted regional acts like JR JR, Tunde Olaniran, Anna Burch, Joshua Davis, Corey Harper, Jacob Sigman, and The North41. Ross Federman of Tally Hall will DJ the event.
The idea for TREEVERB was to both give back to the Ann Arbor community and celebrate the 50th anniversary of First Martin Corporation, President Mike Martin said, eventually recruiting Bank of Ann Arbor and Destination Ann Arbor.
“Selecting a date for this festival was really important to us” Martin said, “we wanted TREEVERB Music Festival to kick-off the Ann Arbor area’s rich tradition of summer cultural events.”
The festival will take place starting at 2:30 p.m. on June 1 in the parking lot at First and Huron streets. Food trucks and a beer tent will be available on site.
“The new TREEVERB Music Festival will continue to solidify Ann Arbor as a destination for unbeatable arts and culture,“ Destination Ann Arbor President and CEO Mary Kerr said. “We’re tremendously excited and proud to support this new event, which will further our city’s reputation as a catalyst for creativity in the Midwest and beyond.”
Criss is no stranger to Ann Arbor, where he graduated in 2009 graduate with a degree from UM’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance, while maintaining a connection with the band Vulpeck.
In the past year, Criss, a San Francisco native, has earned both an Academy Awardand Golden Globe for his role as Andrew Cunanan in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”
Criss gained popularity on TV on Fox’s “Glee” in 2010. His other TV credits include “American Horror Story: Hotel” and “The Flash.” He also starred in Broadway revivals, including “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” in 2015.
Altruda said the hope behind TREEVERB is to turn it into an annual festival with multiple nights, incorporating more local music venues for performances and after-parties.
“I think our overall plan this year was to see how it feels and how Ann Arbor embraces it,” Altruda said. “Put as little pressure as possible on it and see how we feel afterwards.”
